Pressure on Uganda builds over anti-gay law
Human rights campaigners fear they just have “days” to stop Uganda from passing its Anti-Homosexuality Bill following the remarks of the country’s parliamentary Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.
Online activist group Avaaz.org is looking to get 2,000,000 signatures for their petition.
On its website, the group says of the bill:
“We stopped this before: first, 800,000 of us forced Uganda’s president to step in and silence the hate, when it returned with a vengeance, an amazing 1.2 million of us led a global outcry that stalled the anti-gay bill’s final vote until time ran out. Now it’s back and it’s going to take an unprecedented wave of opposition to kill this bill for good.”
The committee has previously recommended that the bill should be passed by lawmakers and while the Ugandan government seems wary of giving it approval – there is widespread political support for it to be signed into law.
Clare Byarugaba, the co-ordinator of Uganda’s Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, said her organisation would challenge the law in the constitutional court.
International donors have threatened to cut off aid to Uganda if the country does not do more to protect the rights of gay people.
